Persecution in Vietnam
By USCIRF
June 16, 2009
Annual Report of the United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom May 2009
This report is the most extensive in the Commission’s ten-year history, documenting serious abuses of freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and belief around the world.
The report recommends that the President designate thirteen countries as “countries of particular concern” under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) for egregious violations of religious freedom, and provides policy prescriptions for each nation. These countries are: Burma, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, People’s Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.
The following statements are taken from pp. 130-131 of the report which focuses on the country of Vietnam:
The Commission has recommended that Vietnam be named a ―”country of particular concern”(CPC) every year since 2001. The State Department named Vietnam a CPC in 2004 and 2005, but removed the designation in 2006, two months before Vietnam received Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with the United States, which enabled Vietnam to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). At the time, the State Department cited religious freedom progress and the release of prisoners of concern as reasons for lifting the CPC designation. The Commission recognizes that the CPC designation spurred important changes in Vietnam, including: the release of prisoners; new legal protections for nationally recognized religious groups; the prohibition of the policy of, and an ensuing overall reduction in, forced renunciations of faith; and an expanded zone of toleration for worship activities, particularly in urban areas.
Nevertheless, there continue to be far too many serious abuses and restrictions of religious freedom in the country. Individuals continue to be imprisoned or detained for reasons related to their religious activity or religious freedom advocacy; police and government officials are not held fully accountable for abuses; independent religious activity remains illegal; and legal protections for government-approved religious organizations are both vague and subject to arbitrary or discriminatory interpretations based on political factors.
Given the ongoing and serious problems faced by Vietnam‘s religious communities, the uneven pace of religious freedom progress after the CPC designation was lifted, the continued detention of prisoners of concern, and a deteriorating human rights situation overall, the Commission again recommends that Vietnam be designated as a CPC in 2009.
Vietnam's overall human rights record remains poor, and has deteriorated since Vietnam joined the WTO in January 2007. Vietnam is an authoritarian state governed by the Communist Party. Over the past two years, the government has moved decisively to repress any perceived challenges to its authority, tightening controls on the freedom of expression, association, and assembly. New decrees were issued last year prohibiting peaceful protest in property disputes and limiting speech on the internet. As many as 40 legal and political reform advocates, free speech activists, human rights defenders, labor unionists, journalists, bloggers, and independent religious leaders and religious freedom advocates have been arrested and others have been placed under home detention or surveillance, threatened, intimidated, and harassed. Given the prominence of religious leaders in advocating for the legal and political reforms needed to fully guarantee religious freedom, their continued imprisonment or detention must be considered when measuring religious freedom progress in Vietnam. Over the past two years, individuals motivated by conscience or religion to peacefully organize or to speak out against restrictions on religious freedom and related human rights continue to be arrested or detained, including Nguyen Van Dai, Fr. Nguyen Van Ly, Le Thi Cong Nhan, and at least two dozen members from the Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, and Khmer Buddhist communities.
Yet despite these significant problems, the number of religious adherents continues to grow in Vietnam.
Click here to access the complete report and scroll down to pp. 130-143.